Hey y’all! This little blog of mine started with an idea when I turned 30. I created a 30 in 30 list and while I didn’t complete all the items on the list, I’m so thankful that I started this blog. Through my blog I have been connected with dozens of thyroid cancer patients and am able to talk to them about the journey of cancer. While most tell me “thank you” for helping them, I get the most joy out of being able to share with them. Even though its been almost 4 years since my diagnosis, it is healing and comforting to know that others are with you in the fight.

Today, I turn 32 and instead of making a “32 in 32” list, I decided to do a giveaway of one of my favorite things… a planner. I know, I know I’m old school with a paper planner, but I just LOVE it! You can keep the planner for yourself or give it as a gift!

The planner I’m giving away has a permanent leather cover, lots of stickers to personalize the pages, a perpetual birthday calendar and a snap-in dry erase to do list. Y’all are going to LOVE it!

2017 will be the fourth year with my Erin Condren planners and before that I used the Lilly Pulitzer planner. Below are my planners over the years… I love to keep them and look back through them from time to time. The EC planners have enough space for me to make it a mini journal of sorts. I write things like “Lyla Rae’s 2 year old molar came in” or “Luke scored two points in his game”. That way I have notes for their photo albums if I ever get around to making them! Hah!

So, how do you win this lovely planner? Simply subscribe to Everyday Allie Rae, follow me on instagram @mrsallisontamme and comment below to tell me your favorite Christmas tradition. You will get one entry for each and I will announce the winner on Monday!

After completely falling off the blogging bandwagon, I decided to jump back on after a comment from a reader. She found me through a Pinterest search on low iodine diets and requested more information. Well, Jeni, you have inspired me to share, so thank you! I know this information has zero relevance for the vast majority of people, but I’ve been getting lots of pins from my LID posts. This excites me because I’m glad to be helping spread tips and tricks to surviving the LID. On the other hand, each time I get a notification that someone pinned my LID posts, it means that someone is getting radioactive iodine, as a likely result of a thyroid cancer diagnosis. Ugh. But, read on to learn how to survive dinner time on the LID!

I LOVE to cook and try new recipes, however, while on the LID, I tend to keep things simple. There are lots of other dinner recipes for the LID online, but I stuck to my three tried and true meals. We literally ate the same dinner every third night for three weeks. I’m not sure who was more sick of them me or Jacob! Hah! He was a good sport and didn’t complain. Mainly because they are actually really great meals… at least I think so!

Meal #1: Steak, Green Beans, and Roasted Sweet Potatoes
I know some people (especially men) feel VERY strongly about their grills and grilling skills, however, we never cook our steaks on the grill. Four years ago, I learned how to cook the perfect steak in an iron skillet/oven and I’ll never go back! Below are the recipes for Meal #1.

Steak– I usually buy filet mignon from our local butcher shop, Kroger, Costco or Whole Foods. You can buy another cut of steak, but when you are on the LID I think you should treat yo’ self whenever you can! Hah! Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. For all you grill lovers, don’t freak out about putting your steak in the oven. Get your iron (or other) skillet hot and pour in 1-2 tbs of olive oil. Coat your steak on all sides with non-iodized salt and pepper. Place your steak in the skillet and let it brown for approximately 4 minutes on each side. Transfer your steak to a shallow baking dish and cook in the oven for 10 minutes for medium (or longer if you prefer). Always use a meat thermometer to get your steak to the temperature of your liking.

Green Beans – I don’t really have measurements for my green beans. Brown garlic in a large sauce pan with some olive oil and then add the beans and a small amount of water. Stir to coat the beans and then cover to simmer. Check periodically until they are tender enough to cut with a fork. Salt to taste with non-iodized salt.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes– My family LOVES these! We eat them nearly weekly and my kiddos can’t get enough. The recipe below is easy to adapt to the LID by using non-iodized salt.

I accidentally photographed this meal without the red potatoes. I had these sweet potatoes left over from the night before, but we usually ate this meal with the roasted red potatoes.

Baked Chicken – Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Coat a chicken breast with olive oil, non-iodized salt and pepper. Place in shallow baking dish and bake for approximately 45 minutes. Again, use your meat thermometer to make sure the center of the meat reaches 165 degrees.

Roasted Broccoli – Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. Wash your broccoli and cut in to florets, or just buy them already prepared. Place florets in a large mixing bowl and toss in 2-3 tbs of olive oil, 1-2 tbs of minced garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Roast broccoli for 10-12 minutes.

Roasted Red Potatoes – Repeat steps for the roasted broccoli, except the potatoes will need to be peeled and cut into quarters and bake for approximately 45 minutes.

LID Safe Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas: Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Slice 2-3 chicken breasts into thin strips and place them in a greased 13×9 oven safe dish. Slice one red pepper, one green pepper and one large onion into thin strips and add them to the dish with chicken. In a small bowl mix: 2 tbs vegetable oil, 2 tbs paprika, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Pour spice mix over chicken and vegetables and mix with a large spoon to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve with No Salt Tortilla chips and slices of avocado.

I unfortunately didn’t take a picture of this dish probably due to the fact that it was inhaled as soon as it came out of the oven!

I am not a doctor or a chef, so please use these recipes for your low iodine diet prep with caution. Each doctor has their own set of guidelines for the diet, so check to make sure each ingredient is safe.

Good luck and let me know if you are on the LID so I can pray for you! It’s not easy, but you CAN DO IT!

Last week, I discussed the importance of the low iodine diet for thyroid cancer patients. Although it’s of extreme importance for the treatment (I like to call it murder of cancer cells) and scans, it is not a bit fun. Due to the strict dietary rules on the LID, it’s often difficult to cook a large meal. I often prefer to snack throughout the day and after three rounds of the LID, I have a few go-to snacks and treats that I love.

I always keep a bag of almonds and raisins in the middle console of my car in case my kiddos get grumpy or I get hangry. For the LID, this snack is perfect to just replace the almonds with unsalted ones. I usually buy my unsalted ones at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but they should be available at most grocery stores. I always purchase several Lara bars and a couple of bags of unsalted Kettle chips to snack on throughout the diet as well. Of course, fresh fruits and veggie slices are always a good snack choice too. For dessert, I buy Hagaan Dazs lemon sorbet.

Popcorn is a must for me on the LID. We quit eating microwave popcorn after I was diagnosed and you should too! If you aren’t convinced read this. Not only is it bad for your health, stove top cooked popcorn tastes SO much better. My kids love to help cook it and it literally takes less than 5 minutes. The only switch I make for the LID is using non-iodine salt instead of sea salt.

Directions: On medium-high, heat olive oil in a medium size pot (make sure it has a lid). When you add the oil, drop 3 kernels into the oil and cover with lid. When those three kernels pop, add the 1/2 cup of kernels. Shake the pan to coat the kernels with oil and let the magic begin. After popping slows to about 3 seconds between pops, pour popcorn into a large bowl and salt to taste.

And now for my FAVORITE low iodine treat of all time. Drum roll, please…

LID safe no bake cookies!

Seriously, y’all they are SO good and I’m pretty proud to say I created this recipe myself. I had to hide them to keep Jacob and my babies from stealing my cookies each night. I have to admit that I made these twice a week while on the LID because they are so delicious. And if I’m being 100% honest, I usually didn’t even make them into cookies… I just poured the cookie mix from the pan into a bowl and ate them with a spoon. When you’re on the LID you just need a guilty pleasure food and these certainly fit the bill.

Directions
In a medium saucepan, melt the oil and peanut butter. Stir continuously. Once melted and combined, add cocoa and sugar and mix until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir. Add oats and stir until combined. Drop by the spoonful onto wax paper. Or pour into a bowl and eat with a spoon. Enjoy!

Jacob and I walked into my oncologist’s office this morning and I was a ball of nerves. This appointment meant cancer or no cancer. Another round of radiation and isolation for ten days or freedom from molecular scans and the LID for three years. There was a LOT riding on this appointment.

After ear-to-ear smiles, high fives, and giddy chatter (along with all the necessary medical junk), I left the office with a new name… Ned. No Evidence of Disease! Praise the Lord.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but Jacob snapped this as I was literally *running* out of the office yelling “wooooooooooo!”

And just like that, I had a peace that is hard to come by as a cancer fighter. The peace of knowing that for the moment I was victorious over this wretched disease. The worry muscle in my brain can rest in knowing that there is no evidence of cancer in my body. I will rest well tonight, but I know there are many that are still fighting and that breaks my heart. I pray that each of them get their NED designation soon.

Before I dive into what I think are “must haves” for a low iodine diet (LID), let’s first discuss why thyroid cancer patients must be on this diet as part of their treatments and check-up scans. This is my “no medical background” explanation, so if you are a nurse or have M.D. after your name, feel free to stop reading here. Hah!

Thyroid cells are the only type of cells in our body that absorb iodine. Actually, salivary cells also absorb it, but they spit (pun intended) the iodine out quickly, because they can’t process it. So, in order to kill all thyroid cells, healthy and cancerous, patients starve their bodies of iodine for three weeks and then take a radioactive iodine pill called I-131. The starving thyroid cells suck up the radioactive iodine and they die… hopefully! Every time a patient has a check-up scan, they must also go through this process. The dosage, called a tracer dose, is very minimal since it’s not intended to kill any cells. If there are any thyroid cancer cells, they will soak up the radioactive iodine and “glow” on the scan. There are lots of other parts to this process: thyrogen injections, blood draws, withholding medications, etc., but that is the bare bones basics of how the process works.

Now that all of the science is out of the way, let’s talk about the low iodine diet. It’s terrible. I hate it, but there’s no other option but to do it. And let’s face it, its infinitely better and easier that chemo, so I try not to complain too much. (Jacob may say otherwise!)

Doctors disagree on what is and is not allowed on the low iodine diet, but here are the guidelines my thyroid oncologist gave me:

When on the LID, a patient is advised to never eat anything from a restaurant because it could become contaminated. So, every bite of food for three weeks must be prepared by hand. This isn’t a huge change for me because I love to cook and we only eat out once, maybe twice a week. However, it became a huge challenge when we traveled to San Fransisco for the Super Bowl. I had to bring my food with me for the entire weekend… yikes! The only thing I could eat from a restaurant was fresh fruit. It was tough, but with a little bit of careful shopping and planning, I survived.

Most salt has iodine in it, so any item that contains salt on a store shelf is a big no-no. Be on the lookout for “no salt” or “salt free” items and then you can add your own iodine free salt to them afterwards.

Here are 14 things you MUST buy while on the LID:

Salt free tortilla chips. I use these for a snack with this salsa recipe and as a side for LID friendly fajitas.

Puffed wheat cereal. I eat this as a snack without milk, but you can also make your own almond milk to go with it.

Unsalted Kettle chips. These are my favorite! They are so yummy, I don’t even add salt to them.

Egg whites. This is a no brainer! They provide protein and you can use them to cook with in place of whole eggs.

Popcorn. I ate this nearly every day. We quit using microwave popcorn after I was diagnosed in 2013 and have never looked back. I cook it on the stove top with olive oil and iodine free salt and it doesn’t even resemble microwave popcorn… so yummy!

Fresh fruits and veggies. Fruit is your friend because it’s all LID safe. I also munch on carrot and celery sticks for snacks.

Lara bars. A great portable snack, but be sure to read the ingredients. Some contain chocolate and/or salt. My favorites are apple pie and cashew cookie.

Steak. I only cooked myself one big hot meal a day, so I treated myself to steak frequently.

Chicken. See above… chicken was a dinner staple. I’ll share my dinner recipes in a later post.

Salt-free peanut butter. I used this in recipes, as a dip for veggie sticks or apples, and sometimes just ate it on a spoon.

Unsalted nuts. Mix any type of unsalted nuts with raisins and you have a quick LID safe snack mix.

Coconut oil. I used this in place of butter in recipes as well as an oil for cooking egg whites.

Simply Lemonade. This was a treat for me each day and a great LID safe drink.

Over the next two days, I will be posting my favorite LID meals, snacks and dessert recipes, so stayed tuned!

My scan is tomorrow morning and I could NOT be more excited to be off the LID! I will be spending the day drinking Starbucks lattes and eating pizza. I plan on pigging out for three days and then I will resume my normal eating habits. We have a vacay planned in three weeks, so I’m going to try not to indulge too much.

Happy Monday, y’all! It’s VICTORY Monday in our house today! Yes, the Falcons won yesterday and are 2-0, but we are celebrating an even bigger victory today! Yesterday was my “Good News Day” – the day I gained the NED designation. If you haven’t been a cancer patient, the word NED might not mean much to you. But to me, it’s basically my favorite word of all because it stands for “no evidence of disease” in other words… cancer free! Since Jacob was in New York all day yesterday, we are celebrating the 2nd anniversary of my Good News Day today! If you are new to the blog and haven’t read about my cancer journey you can read about it here and here.

September is famous for Childhood Cancer Awareness month, but it’s also Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. I had never even heard of thyroid cancer until a few months before I was diagnosed. And even though it’s one of the fastest growing cancers among women, it still isn’t mentioned when the cancer conversation comes up because it’s dubbed the “good cancer” due to its high survival rates.. News flash: There isn’t a good cancer. Sure, my hair didn’t fall out and I didn’t spend months in the hospital, but I am *still* dealing with the repercussions of this disease and will for the rest of my life.

Since most people are uneducated about thyroid cancer, I want you to know a few things (things I didn’t know prior to January 28, 2012).

Check Your Neck. Seriously. It seems so simple, but no one does it. Women will be bombarded with all things pink next month to remind them to do monthly breast exams, but I’ve literally never heard a single person tell me to “check my neck”. Not even my doctors mentioned it, until after my diagnosis. To do this simple check, first, locate your thyroid. It’s right above your collar bone and below your Adam’s apple. Next, stand in front of a mirror and take a drink of water and swallow it to watch for any lumps, bumps or knots. Then, use the side of your hand and slowly move it up and down the front of your next to check again for any lumps. That’s it. It’s that simple. If you feel something that doesn’t seem right or is new to your neck, please call your doctor.

2. No one is immune to the threat of cancer. No one. My only risk factor was my gender. I had no family history of this type of cancer and I was only 28 when I was diagnosed.

3. Take care of your body: it’s the only place you have to live. I have recently become a little slack in taking the best possible care of my body, but my Good News Day anniversary has reignited my fire to do so. You can control two of the four things that contribute to cancer: diet and exercise. It’s actually pretty simple… eat the rainbow, don’t eat junk and move your body! Don’t you want to reduce your cancer risk by doing those simple things?

4. Eat foods that contain iodine. Iodine is crucial to your thyroid health. These types of foods include anything that comes from the sea (fish, seaweed, etc.), dairy products and eggs. You can also buy salt that contains iodine.

5. If you feel that something just isn’t right with your body, call a doctor. My first symptom of thyroid cancer was my toes tingling. It then spread to my legs and arms. My doctor did a CT to check for a pinched nerve and that’s when they saw the tumor on my thyroid. I had been feeling a little sluggish, but attributed it to having a toddler and the stress of football season. If you aren’t feeling like yourself, seek help.

Now that we’ve gotten all of the serious stuff out of the way, can we talk about the Falcons game I mentioned earlier? My sweet hubby caught his career long catch with a 41 yard haul from Matt Ryan. He’s just getting better each year. 30 is the new 23, right? Hah!

You can read the beginning of this story here. This is another super long post and while I would love for you to read my story, I’m writing this mainly for me. I have never written about my cancer and it’s something I want to have in writing that I can keep forever.

I had my first thyroid cancer surgery appointment in Lexington on January 31st. Jacob drove us to UK hospital in a blinding rainstorm and neither of us spoke a word on the 45 minute ride. We had KLOVE playing at a barely audible level and as we pulled into the hospital parking lot something miraculous happened. I heard the words, “this is where the healing begins, ohhh, this is where the healing starts”. I reached for the volume knob and cranked it ALL the way up. Jacob and I looked at each other with big tear filled eyes and huge smiles. God was letting us know that it was all going to be ok. We could not believe what just happened. Literally the moment our truck crossed into the parking lot the song “Healing Begins” by Tenth Avenue North came on the radio. How in the world was that timed so pefectly? God – that’s how. He cares about us so much that he even orchestrates radio waves to play the exact words for little ole me at the perfect time! Wow!

Our attitudes changed, and for the first time in three days we smiled. Not fake smiles, not forced smiles, real, genuine, joyful smiles.

We first met with the resident at the surgeon’s office. I don’t remember his name, but I will never forget him. As I broke down crying in the exam room, he gave me a big hug and told me, “you will be ok.” I SO needed to hear that from a doctor who dealt with this everyday. About 10 minutes later, my surgeon, Dr. Sloan walked in. I hopped off the exam table and stuck out my hand to greet him. “You’re my new best friend!” I said. Jacob just stood there and laughed. Jacob stood and shook his hand as well. The important thing about that hand shake was that Jacob had not shaken hands with anyone in several months. He injured his hand playing football and it hurt terribly to shake hands. He had become a master of the fist bump. However, he said I’m going to shake the hand of the doctor that’s going to heal my wife… and he did.

My appointment lasted two hours and they ran lots of tests. I had a tiny camera shoved up my nose and down my throat (that was pleasant) and an ultrasound to look at my thyroid and the surrounding lympnodes. Dr. Sloan wanted to see with his own eyes what he was working with so he actually did part of the ultrasound himself. I was shaking and nervous as I laid on the table while he glided the ultrasound wand back and forth across my neck. Every time he would stop and stare at the screen I would ask, “What do you see? Is it bad?” I quickly learned through this process… Ask questions. Question everything. Then when you think they’ve told you everything, ask more! After the ultrasound was over, he explained that it looked contained. With teary eyes, I told him that I had complete faith in him to heal me. What he said next, I will NEVER forget.

“Well, Allison, I believe in the ultimate healer and He will heal you. I’m just here to help make it happen.”

Wow! More tears.

We left the appointment with burdens lifted, more joyful hearts, a plan of attack and a surgery date the next week! Again, God was moving this process right along. There would not be weeks of waiting; I only had one week until my surgery to rid my body of cancer. Hallelujah!

A few days before my surgery, we posted on social media about my diagnosis. The local media saw Jacob’s twitter feed and they announced it on the news. I felt exposed and vulnerable with everyone knowing, but I also knew that I would have more people praying for me. At this point, I coveted prayers, so the more the merrier. We were bombarded with phone calls, e-mails, texts and messages that people were praying for me. Some people we had never even met – we felt so blessed.

Surgery

Pre-surgery selfie and the last picture of me without my scar

I had my total thyroidectomy on February 7, 2013. That morning, I snuggled Luke extra close and I recorded my voice saying, “I love you, Luke.” and ” I love you, Jacob.” There is a risk with thyroidectomies that your voice box could be damaged temporarily or permanently and I wanted to be sure that my boys could hear those words from me forever.

My sister bought these buttons for everyone in our family to wear!

I had complete peace about the surgery. God had been with me taking care of all the details up until this point and I knew He would continue to do so. I was so at peace that when my family came in to see me in pre-op my mom thought they had already given me medicine to calm my nerves. And of course, we had a small party right there in pre-op! My parents and sister came bearing gifts. My sister got me a hand knitted scarf in the “thyroid cancer colors” – purple, aqua and pink, and my parents got me a new shirt. They sure know how to make a girl feel special! Jacob was there too, holding my hand until they wheeled me away. Just before they took me to the operating room, my pastor, Brent, and a deacon from my church came and prayed over me, Dr. Sloan and Jacob. Peace, just peace!

I spent just one night in the hospital and then headed home to recover. From that day forward, my body is completely dependent on a drug to replace my thyroid. Every morning like clockwork, I pop a little pill that keeps me alive. No, I won’t drop over dead if I forget it, but if I didn’t take it for a few weeks I would be in a coma and a couple weeks after that, I would be six feet under. I loathe the fact that I’m dependent on medicine, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

I love what Jacob wrote on the white board in my hospital room. You can see it in the picture below:

Treatment

Four days after my surgery, I went back to see Dr. Sloan to get the pathology reports. It was confirmed that I had papillary thyroid carcinoma and that there were actually multiple tumors on both lobes of my thyroid. However, the muscle margins were all clean and so were the 15 lymphnodes that they removed. Praise the Lord. We were told that I had a very high cure rate, not remission, but CURE. So grateful for those words. Since I did have multiple tumors, I was going to need radiation treatment to kill any remaining cancer cells.

The next week I met with my oncologist, Dr. Ain, for the first time. It still feels really weird to say “my oncologist.” In case you’ve never experienced it, oncology waiting rooms are probably the most depressing place in the world. I was so relieved when they called my name so I could get out of there and head to an exam room. Dr. Ain was the first thyroid oncologist in North America and he is *the* expert on the subject. If you read a book on thyroid cancer, he probably wrote it. How incredible is it that he is in Lexington, Kentucky? The expert on my type of cancer is 45 minutes from my home! Wow! God’s provision once again! Dr. Ain taught us everything we could ever want to know about thyroid cancer and then some. We set up a plan of attack for my radiation and he even worked it around our trip to Disney! I did not want to miss out on that!

After three weeks of a crazy, strict low iodine diet, a full body scan and two rounds of injections, my body was ready for radiation. It’s a special radiation treatment called I-131, radioactive iodine. Basically, I would swallow a single pill, become radioactive for a few days and hopefully my cancer would be eradicated. They took Jacob and I into the basement of the hospital and told us all the risks and precautions we should take with me being radioactive. They made Jacob leave the room and I gave him one last hug. I wouldn’t have human contact for the next 10 days because everything I touched would become radioactive as well. In walked a woman dressed from head to toe in protective gear wheeling a cart with a few items on top. See that jar below? It is made of tungsten and it contained a single pill. Those tongs… that’s what the radiologist would use to pick up the pill and give to me to swallow. Yep, that’s right, a woman covered in protective gear has to use 12″ tongs to pick up a pill that I have to swallow! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! So, down the hatch the pill went and within 15 minutes I was radioactive.

I sat in the third row of our car as Jacob drove me to my parents house. They graciously let me stay in their basement during my quarantine of 10 days. Y’all, it was a LONG 10 days. I now know why solitary confinement is such a terrible punishment. The worst part was not being able to see Luke. He couldn’t even be in the same room as me and I didn’t get to hug or touch him on his 2nd birthday. It was torture, but it was worth it to get rid of my cancer. The radiation made me sick and nauseous, but only for about 48 hours, which is much better than traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. I didn’t have a follow-up to see if I was cancer free for six months. My oncologist explained that the radiation was like a war: Some of the soldiers (cancer cells) die instantly from mortal wounds. Others get injured and live for weeks weak and wounded until the eventually succumb to gangrene. So, we waited. And on September 20, 2013, I was given the NED designation: No Evidence of Disease. We now call that day “Good News Day” and you better believe that we celebrate every year!

This is the hilarious card Jacob gave me to open after my treatment. He knew I would need a good laugh!

Come back tomorrow because I’ll be blogging about what we’ve changed in our lives since my cancer diagnosis including what products we will never use again and the things we’ve banished from our diets.

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Today, I celebrate my D-Day – my Diagnosis Day! I know most people wouldn’t think that this is a day for celebration, but you know I love a party, so… we celebrate. Two years ago today I was diagnosed with cancer and today I celebrate that I am alive, that I am healthy and that today will not be like that day. I get asked frequently, “How did you know that you had cancer? What were your symptoms?” Well, it all started with my big toe. Seriously, it did. If you want to hear the whole story, settle in and keep reading- it’s a long one.

First symptoms + Initial testing

One morning in September 2012, I woke up to my toes tingling and feeling like they were “asleep”. You know that feeling when it feels as if thousands of tiny pins are pricking your skin? That’s what I was feeling. Over the next two weeks, that feeling spread to my lower legs, then my hands, forearms and shoulder blades. I put a call in to my doctor in Denver and he ordered a CT scan to check for a pinched nerve. When we got the report, all was clear. No pinched nerve. Jacob and I were sitting on the couch looking over the report when we noticed a notation on the last line of the page: “Of note – 9mm ovoid nodule on R thyroid lobe.” Ummm… What? Of course, I freak out and call my doctor because he did not even mention it. He reassured me that a large portion of the population have nodules on their thyroid and that he would like to look at it again in three months, but not to worry. Of course, I worried. I’m no dummy because before I called my doctor, I had become an “expert” on thyroid nodules thanks to WebMD. Hah!

Fast forward to January 14, 2013. The Broncos had just lost to the Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs and we were packing up to head home to Kentucky. Thankfully, I had written a reminder in my planner to have a check-up on my thyroid. I called the doctor to let him know that we were leaving town to see if he wanted to see me. He did and I had an ultrasound the next day. The nodule had grown. It wasn’t a drastic growth, just .1mm, but it was enough to warrant a biopsy. He knew that we were anxious to get home for the off season, so he said I could get the biopsy done in Kentucky.

Biopsy + Diagnosis

My biopsy was scheduled for Jan 31. Through a chain of events including the help of some good friends (thanks Kelly!), that date got moved up to Jan 28. Jacob wasn’t allowed in the procedure room with me, which made me anxious, but I tried to stay calm. The radiologist performing the biopsy goes to our church, so at least I had a somewhat familiar face in the room. I was awake for the whole procedure that included a HUGE needle guided by ultrasound going into my neck. All I could feel was the pressure, but I couldn’t move – at all. You see the thyroid sits very close to several arteries and my voice box so if I moved I risked that needle going places that would be very dangerous. After three attempts at the biopsy, I was told that the nodule had the consistency of a bouncy ball and it “wasn’t giving up any cells”. At that point, my heart sank. I knew. I had cancer. I tried to stay positive (and stay still), but my heart and my mind were racing. After seven attempts at the biopsy, the pathologist finally had enough cells to test. I left the hospital and Jacob took me home to rest with a noticeable wound on my neck. I was told that I would hear something in 48 hours. However, four hours later, my phone rang.

The number on my caller ID was familiar, it was my doctor here in Kentucky, Dr. Clark. Again, my heart sank. I knew. I yelled for Jacob to come in the room and we sat at our dining room table as I slid my finger across the phone to answer it. The conversation was like something you would see in a movie.

“Allison, this is Dr. Clark. How are you?”

“I’m fine.” I’m usually not short on words but that is all I could manage to utter.

“Are you at home? Are you by yourself?”

“No, Jacob is here with me. I have him on speaker phone.”

And then, Dr. Clark’s voice began to waiver ever so slightly and he informed me that I had thyroid cancer.

My whole world started spinning out of control. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t think. My entire body was numb. I was 28.

Jacob was intently taking notes and asking questions as Dr. Clark spoke. His voice sounded so positive but all I could think of was that word – cancer. As our conversation drew to an end, I only had one question – “Will I be able to have more children?” He affirmatively said, yes. I was relieved, but still terrified.

As we hung up the phone, Jacob leaned over and wrapped me in his arms and the floodgates of tears opened. Our world had just been rocked like never before and we knew we had a long, hard fight in front of us.
We called and informed our immediate family of the news and within an hour they were all at our house with dinner and ice cream (I told you we love a party, even under bad circumstances.) We hugged, we cried, we laughed. We were all just stunned.

This picture is blurry, but it’s the only one we have of the night of my diagnosis. You can see on my neck where the biopsy was done. Luke was so sweet and sensed something was wrong, so he snuggled with me all night.

I would love to tell you that I was strong after my diagnosis. That I wasn’t worried. That as a child of God, I knew that everything would be ok. However, I can’t tell you that. I was terrified. My worry muscle in my brain was being worked to the point of exhaustion and I was inconsolable. The next two days of waiting for my first surgery/oncology appointment was pure hell. I know my Mama is not going to like me using that word, but that’s just what it was – hell. I was so incredibly blessed because I only had to wait two days; many people wait weeks for their first appointment. However, there was a surgeon in Lexington that specialized in thyroidectomies and he just happened to have a new patient opening on the morning of the 31st (that biopsy getting moved upended up making a big difference for me!) God was already at work orchestrating all of the events in my cancer story to work for my good, even if sometimes it didn’t always feel like it.

I’ll continue the rest of my story tomorrow, but for today I’m off with my little family to celebrate. First stop: Bluebird Cafe.